25. Suicide Voyeur: Why is assisted dying a crime?

Explicit content warning

05/06/21 • 45 min

William Melchert-Dinkle posed as a female nurse online and encouraged people with suicidal thoughts to hang themselves. He even watched some of them carry it out via webcam. He was convicted of assisting suicide and given a prison sentence. But, this is an unusual case.

Does criminalising assisted dying protect vulnerable people or take the power away from people to choose when and how they die?

Geoff Whaley suffered from motor neurone disease and campaigned for assisted suicide to be legalised so his wife could legally help him travel to Switzerland to end his life at Dignitas. He advocated for the right to die with dignity and physician-assisted suicide, where doctors prescribe drugs for eligible patients to self-administer to end their own life.

Tony Nicklinson suffered from locked in syndrome and campaigned for voluntary euthanasia to be legal. Do laws against assisted dying discriminate against people with disabilities?

On this episode of Bad People Dr Julia Shaw and comedian Sofie Hagen discuss whether we can strike a balance between protecting vulnerable people while also empowering people to have autonomy over their own death.

This episode includes audio form Dateline NBC and Channel 4’s Dispatches.

Warning: This episode contains strong language and discussion of suicide.

CREDITS

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producer: Caroline Steel Artwork: Kingsley Nebechi Music: Matt Chandler Series Editor: Rami Tzabar

Academic Consultants for The Open University: Dr. Zoe Walkington Dr. Camilla Elphick

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

Does criminalising assisted dying protect vulnerable people or take the power away from people to choose when and how they die?

Tony Nicklinson suffered from locked in syndrome and campaigned for voluntary euthanasia to be legal. Do laws against assisted dying discriminate against people with disabilities?

This episode includes audio form Dateline NBC and Channel 4’s Dispatches.

Warning: This episode contains strong language and discussion of suicide.

CREDITS

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producer: Caroline Steel Artwork: Kingsley Nebechi Music: Matt Chandler Series Editor: Rami Tzabar

Academic Consultants for The Open University: Dr. Zoe Walkington Dr. Camilla Elphick

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

Previous Episode

24. Missing Little Princess: Can we detect high-stakes lies?

On the 19th February 2008, nine-year-old Shannon Matthews went missing in Dewsbury in West Yorkshire. She had just been dropped off by a coach at her school which was just half a mile from her home. Shannon’s best friend said her brother was supposed to be collecting her but he never turned up.

Shannon’s mum Karen reported her missing later that evening. The Police moved quickly for fear that she had been abducted. Emotional TV appeals by her mother, Karen, soon followed. At one stage, up to 250 officers and 60 detectives and half the UK’s Police sniffer dogs were involved in the search – making it at one time, one of the largest investigations since the Yorkshire Ripper case 30 years earlier.

As the search grew more frantic, suspicion started to fall on her family. First on Karen’s boyfriend and then on Karen herself. In this episode, Julia and Sofie talk about the disappearance of Shannon Matthews, the issue of social class and victimhood and research by Dr Leanne ten Brinke on analysing videos of pleaders to see if it is possible to detect high-stakes lies.

Warning: This episode contains strong language and references to murder, child abduction and suicide.

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producer: Paula McGrath Assistant Producer: Simona Rata Artwork: Kingsley Nebechi Music: Matt Chandler Series Editor: Rami Tzabar

Academic Consultants for The Open University: Dr. Zoe Walkington Dr. Camilla Elphick

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds #BadPeople_BBC

Next Episode

26. House of Tears: Why do we mistreat young mums?

Children are playing on the grounds of a former Irish Mother and Baby Home in Tuam when they find 20 tiny skeletons under a concrete slab. Stories follow that shock the world, of over 800 babies found in a septic tank. But who is to blame?

Years later, an investigation into the Bon Secours Home establishes that 978 babies and children died on the grounds while it was run by Catholic nuns. The 2021 report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes draws attention to the horrific treatment of unmarried mothers in Ireland throughout the 20th century, who often had nowhere to go but to these mismanaged and abusive homes.

The leader of Ireland, the Taoiseach, apologised for the profound and generational wrong which was the result of stifling, oppressive and brutally misogynistic culture. But, how did it get so far? And, what can we do to make sure such a situation doesn’t happen again?

In this episode of Bad People, criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw and comedian Sofie Hagen try to understand why society still judges young mums, examine the concept of coercive confinement, and explore research on religion-related child maltreatment.

This episode includes audio from a Video dramatization of individuals' stories produced by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters.

Warning: This episode contains strong language and descriptions of violence

CREDITS

Presenters: Dr Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producer: Paula McGrath Artwork: Kingsley Nebechi Music: Matt Chandler Series Editor: Rami Tzabar

Academic Consultants for The Open University: Dr. Zoe Walkington Dr. Camilla Elphick

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds.

#BadPeople_BBC